The disclosure relates to tools for installing and removing combustion liners of combustors.
Gas turbines typically include a compressor section, a combustion section, and a turbine section. The compressor section pressurizes air flowing into the turbine. The combustion section receives the pressurized air, mixes it with fuel, and combusts the mixture. The turbine section receives the combustion flow from the combustion section to drive the turbine and generate power. The combustion section generally includes one or more combustors disposed around the axis of the gas turbine. Each of the combustors includes a combustion chamber defined by a combustion liner. Combustion occurs in the space within the combustion liner and the combustion liner is generally coated with ceramic materials or other combustion resistant materials.
Combustion liners are routinely removed during combustor maintenance and repair. A significant amount of force can be required to install, remove, and/or re-install the combustion liner within a combustor to overcome the friction at the interface between the combustion liner and the transition piece. For example, a seal is typically disposed at this interface that must be compressed in order to allow the combustion liner to insert into the transition piece. This sometimes requires several hundred pounds of axial installation force and may require a similar magnitude of force for removal. Various approaches have been used for generating this installation force, including manually operated hammers, threaded blocks that moveably engage the combustion liner, and others. Manually hammering and various configurations for engaging the combustion liner can damage combustion liners, particularly ceramic coatings, and may provide less reliable positioning of the combustion liner.